Seven candidates officially qualify to run for Albuquerque mayor

Incumbent Tim Keller will face a six-pack of challengers as he runs for an unprecedented third term as Albuquerque mayor.

After the June 21 deadline to meet the requirements for qualification in the upcoming election, Keller and six other mayoral hopefuls will be on the Election Day ballot on Nov. 5.

Candidates for mayor must gather a significant number of petition signatures and, for those seeking public financing, qualifying contributions to secure their spot on the ballot.

The number of required qualifying contributions, spending and aggregate limits for candidates is tied to voter registration numbers in the district, extracted each February of an election cycle. Mayoral candidates need 3,780 qualifying contributions and must gather more than 3,000 petition signatures from registered Albuquerque voters.

The qualifying period for Mayor candidates began on April 19 and concluded on June 21 at 5 p.m.

Seven candidates successfully met the petition signature requirement:

• Incumbent Mayor Tim Keller: 4,786 verified signatures 
• Eddie Varela (Retired Albuquerque firefighter and former California fire chief): 3,973 verified signatures 
• Daniel Chavez (President of Parking Company of America): 3,427 verified signatures 
• Alex Uballez (Former U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico): 3,643 verified signatures 
• Louie Sanchez (Former police officer and current city councilor): 3,588 verified signatures.
• Mayling Armijo (Former director of Economic Development for Bernalillo County and deputy county manager for Sandoval County): 3,370 verified signatures.
• Darren White (Former sheriff of Bernalillo County): 3,562 verified signatures.

Four candidates who filed to run for mayor did not qualify for the ballot or have withdrawn from the race entirely:

• Adeo Herrick withdrew from the mayoral race on June 17.
• Brian Fejer withdrew his candidacy for Mayor.
• Patrick Sais did not qualify with 1,052 verified signatures.
• Alpana Adair did not qualify with 29 verified signatures.

Adair and Sais can still qualify as write-in candidates.

With seven candidates for mayor, a runoff election is possible. Runoffs are necessary when no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. If that happens on Nov. 5, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff election that must be held within 45 days of Election Day.